James R. Lewis started his academic career at New Mexico State University receiving BM and MM degrees in music theory and composition in 1975 and 1978 (the first student there to produce electronic and computer-generated compositions). Along the way he took electives in psychology and statistics, fell in love with the concept of using psychology to improve the design of artifacts intended for human use, and switched careers, receiving his BA and MA degrees in experimental psychology (human factors specialization with a minor in applied statistics) from New Mexico State University in 1978 and 1981. While on assignment at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center from 1988-1989, he took courses in multivariate statistics and psychometrics at Columbia University Teachers College. He received his PhD (Experimental Psychology specializing in psycholinguistics) from Florida Atlantic University in 1996 (funded by IBM).

Jim is an internationally recognized expert in usability testing and measurement, having published influential papers on the assessment of satisfaction with computer systems and sample size estimation for problem-discovery usability studies. He joined IBM in 1981 and from 1999 through 2005 was the technical team lead for the human factors/usability group working in IBM speech product development. After that he consulted with IBM clients on speech and touchtone projects for major US and international customers in diverse areas such as insurance, telecom, banking, entertainment, and state benefits. He has experience in all areas of speech system usability (including desktop systems, embedded systems, text-to-speech systems, speech interactive voice response applications, and natural language understanding technologies). Before that, he was the lead user experience designer for many of IBM’s personal computers and mobile products, including the product now widely regarded as the first smartphone, the Simon (which made a brief appearance in the 1995 movie, The Net).

He retired from IBM on December 31, 2019, and began work at MeasuringU on January 2, 2020. At MeasuringU he works with clients who need advanced UX research and analysis support, including complex experimental designs and multivariate analytical methods such as ANOVA, multiple regression, MaxDiff, and structural equation modeling. He collaborates regularly with Jeff Sauro (the CEO of MeasuringU) on the production of weekly research reports, peer-reviewed research, UX books, and content for MeasuringU’s online UX courses.

Jim is an IBM Master Inventor emeritus with over 90 patents issued by the US Patent Office. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, eight book chapters, and five books, including publication of influential standardized UX questionnaires including the CSUQ, PSSUQ, ASQ, MOS-X, EMO, UMUX-Lite, and UX-Lite. He is the co-editor in chief of the Journal of User Experience and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA), and is a member and past president of the Association for Conversational Interaction Design (ACIxD). He was the keynote speaker at the Human-Computer Interaction International conference held in Crete in 2014. In 2021, he was inducted into the Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine of Florida. Shortly after achieving his 6th degree black belt, in 2022 he was inducted as a master instructor in the American Taekwondo Association.